Financialization of the Economic Fabric

In an age of global marketing, the ability to sell and to ensure cash flow became (as we have seen) more important than the ability to produce. Thus, under the motto ‘divest and distribute’, VLCs increasingly focused on customer relations. They therefore abandoned other activities — including manufacturing — and confined themselves to organizing logistical and other links with their partners, suppliers and subcontractors. These supply networks were built up like pyramids or concentric circles around the mega-enterprises which orchestrated the whole system. These owned the brands that ‘signed’ their products, and sold them through their distribution networks. They also controlled the design of their products and held the relevant intellectual property rights, and they made sure that fully integrated services were available when the products were sold.